MUSIC REVIEW : Heralding Trumpet’s Versatility

Music director Micah Levy treated the Orange County Chamber Orchestra’s audience to an afternoon of Baroque courtliness on Sunday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The fare brimmed with regal pleasantries that revolved around the celebratory sound of the trumpet, both as solo instrument and within the orchestra.

Trumpeter Fred Holmgren tackled two concertos. The first--Concerto No. 2, in D--by Johann Melchior Molter, required piccolo trumpet for its typically stratospheric part. Holmgren--principal trumpet of the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque and a member of the Portland Baroque Orchestra--managed a mostly tidy, delicate account of this technically difficult work. Still, he offered only modest inflection to his interpretation and--perhaps further hindered by his instrument’s muted tone, in comparison to those of his accompanists--conveyed little of interest.

Holmgren reappeared as protagonist for Leopold Mozart’s Concerto in D, which he now had to reinvent because the orchestra reportedly had inexplicably received its music in the wrong key.

Therefore, playing on a hastily borrowed Scherzer D-trumpet, he gave a creditable reading of this graceful and unassuming piece, a bright and stylish performance, if unexciting.

During Giuseppe Torelli’s Sinfonia a Quatro, Holmgren joined the trumpet section in its festive replies to highlighted duos, all deftly handled by principal first and second chair violins, cellists and oboists. Concertmistress Diana Halprin and principal second Joseph Goodman brought particular vitality to their duos.

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Other selections included a Concerto Grosso in D by Telemann, Sinfonia No. 3, in G, by Vivaldi and Thomas Arne’s Symphony No.1, in C.

Throughout, Levy led his group in sprightly, attentive and neatly ornamented presentations. Sandy Matthews provided suitable continuo on a keyboard sampler set to emulate, in turn, the sound of a harpsichord, a portative organ and a “church” organ.

Though not authentic, in times of financial crunch its digitally reproduced sounds are surprisingly practical and serviceable.